Just Think!: A new video series from New York State
by John L. RoederJust think! It's what we're always trying to get our students to do. It's also the title of a new video series from the New York State Education Department. If you are looking for an effective way to introduce teachers in your school or district to the techniques embodied in the new Science Teaching Standards (in the National Science Education Standards) or the Learning Standards for Mathematics, Science, and Technology (of New York State), this video series is for you!
You can get it all on one cassette or seven separate cassettes. Either way you get it, you get seven 12-minute videos, each devoted to a separate aspect of what is believed to make for excellent science teaching: "Inquiry," "Design," "Starts," "Discourse," "Research," "Assessment," and "Partnerships." The "Inquiry" and "Design" videos focus on the ideals involved in setting up a science program; "Starts," "Discourse," "Research," and "Assessment" deal with the actual implementation of science teaching; and "Partnerships" more than anything else summarizes the interlocking themes running through the other six programs.
The 12-minute length was chosen to give teachers enough of a sense of the aspect of teaching being presented but more importantly to give teachers time after watching a video for small group adiscussions (which are then shared) about how they can implement that aspect in their teaching. (Resource Agents of the New York Science, Technology, and Society Education Project (NYSTEP) spent an hour discussing each video program at their updating institute in Rensselaerville, NY, last June.) Each 12-minute program provides a lot of video food for thought.
There are excerpts from the classrooms of Lucia Guarino (middle level) and Lisa Moosbrugger (elementary), interviews with ]science educators Karen Worth (who chaired the Science Teaching Standards Working Group) and Hubert Dyasi, and scenes of students doing activities both inside and outside the classroom (including the International Zoological Park that is still known to New Yorkers as the Bronx Zoo).
Teachers in New York State will have opportunity to preview one of the Just Think: Problem Solving Through Inquiry video programs at NYSTEP workshops during the coming academic year. They can also read about it on page 9 of the May 1996 issue of NYS SSI Perspectives. The entire series (seven programs plus guidebook) is available for $150 (purchase order or check payable to the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance) from the Office of Educational Television and Public Broadcasting, Cultural Education Center, 10A75, Albany, NY 12234, (518)-474-5862; FAX: (518)-486-4850. Individual video programs are sold (without guide) for $20 each, and the Uindividual guidebook is sold for $10 (no discount for purchasing the entire package).
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